$200 Million In Cryptocurrency Looted From BitGrail

It’s been a busy weekend for the cyber crime industry. Couple of stories here that Ilia Kolochenko, CEO of web security company, High-Tech Bridge, comments below on the heist of BitGrail and the hijacked pwned incident. See below:

“It is difficult to forecast how many more similar incidents will happen in 2018, but undoubtedly a lot. Some people still naively believe that crypto-currencies are their chance for a wealthy life, and they blindly spend their last savings on unstable digital coins via opaque online platforms. Obviously, it’s a windfall for unscrupulous “entrepreneurs” who won’t shun the low-hanging fruit. Law enforcement agencies are already busy enough with major data breaches of large retailers and banks, and simply cannot allocate sufficient resources to prevent, investigate and prosecute fraud in they grey area of unregulated crypto-currencies.

I would however not blame anyone prior to a rigorous technical investigation. Many blockchain startups simply neglect and carelessly disregard the fundamentals of cybersecurity. Their negligence cannot help to attract cyber gangs who can steal their crown jewels with almost absolute impunity. Money laundering with digital coins is also pretty simple. I think, 2018 will mark more notorious cases of similar incidents.”

“It is a good, albeit sad, example how even the largest organizations depend on cybersecurity of third-parties. The good news is that we see a nascent trend among large companies to evaluate and monitor how well their suppliers and partners manage their information security, incident response and privacy issues.”